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Sunday, 18 October 2015

Week 42 - My Sunday Photo

Check out my ride.

The lovely people at Ford South Africa are allowing me to drive this beauty/beast for the new few weeks as I work on the Santa Shoebox Project, collecting and distributing gifts to disadvantaged and vulnerable children in South Africa.

I lived in South Africa for years up until December 2014 when we moved to Dubai. I left a huge part of my heart here and it was with great sadness when the time came to leave.

I'm back here for 5 weeks staying with some of the most hard working and amazing people I've ever met in my life.

We all met through volunteering with Santa Shoebox. I dropped off my 5 boxes, 1 box from each of our children, and offered to help, I stayed for 3 days. I attended the celebrations, travelled far and wide and by the time I left South Africa between us and a committee and a huge team of volunteers we had collected and distributed almost 35,000 christmas presents. On average attending 10-15 celebrations where the gifts were handed out each year.

The Santa Shoebox project is a year round commitment, it involves much more than just buying a gift and handing it out. First of all facilities are identified, children's names and ages are collected, uploaded onto the website. Donors and sponsorship are sought which involves contacting groups and individuals, setting up stands at markets and shopping centres, handing out leaflets, meeting with people. Engaging and recruiting volunteers via word of mouth and emails.

Drop off and collection venues are required, transport, fillers to add the extra items the donors may have forgotten to pop in the box. Every box is checked, fixed, scanned and packed. Laser Logistics collect and store and deliver to either Stor_age, the facilities or to our houses, ready for the celebration day. Virtual boxes are packed via online donations with PicknPay. 85% of the costs are sponsored by PEP.

And then?????

We volunteer at the facilities, we raise funds for educational supplies, food, blankets for the winter, we build schools, we train teachers, we raise awareness of disability, poverty. There are so many other organisations that we get involved with during the rest of the year and over the coming weeks I'll be introducing you to the volunteers and the facilities that I and many others have supported over the years and will continue to do so for years to come.

Take a sneak peak at these these marvellous NPO's that help the communities of South Africa.